AS THE STORM FRONT CLOSES IN

 

As the storm front closes in

The Gulls desert the cliff top

To find safe haven deep inland

And wait for the storm to stop

THE FISHING BOATS BOB AND DANCE

 

The fishing boats bob and dance

Driven by weather to the south

Making slow progress in the swell

As they approach the harbour mouth

CACOPHONIC CHORUS

 

As if to chase the night away

And herald the dawn’s arrival

Birds awaken bright as the day

With the cacophonic chorus

Before the sun comes into view

To turn the sky from black to blue

OCTOBER

 

Misty mornings
Start dim and dismal
Penetrating Dampness
Seeping into your bones
Some days it brightens later
Enough for shirtsleeves
Then when darkness falls
Curtains are drawn.
At the months beginning
Grass is still growing green
The trees are well covered still
Then leaves turn green to yellow
Yellow is burnished to gold
Gold to burning red
Then red to earth.
Beyond the equinox
Days have already become
More dark than light
Before the clocks fall back
And the sun sets sooner
Days of sunshine deceive
Sheltered pockets warm and confuse the senses
In the later days
When the residual warmth diminishes
The bite remains
To herald worse to come

Uncanny Tales – (009) Spring was in the air

Spring was certainly in the air on that beautiful early Spring weekend, and what wonderful weather it was, made all the nicer after the long drawn out winter that preceded it, which probably seemed that much longer than it was because we had had no summer to speak of the previous year.

Anyway, the weather was so nice that after breakfast I left my wife in bed reading the Sundays and I set off for a good long walk around the village and its environs.

As I enjoyed the warm Spring sunshine, I noticed the many harbingers of the season such as the daffodils nodding in the breeze, birdsong everywhere and endless parades of cyclists along the lanes punctuated only by the occasional car towing a caravan.

 

After a couple of strenuous hours, I had worked up something of a sweat as well as a thirst to match, so I headed towards home, but because of the thirst I thought I might just have a cool refreshing beer at the village pub on the way.

However once I reached the pub I soon realised I was not the only one to have that idea and I had to negotiate my way through piles of abandoned bikes and was then greeted by the scene of a packed beer garden full of people showing far too much white flesh than was good for anyone which had the effect of slaking my thirst.

So I decided to give it a miss after all and went home early instead, where I could enjoy a cold beer in my own garden, but when I entered my house I discovered that my neighbour Gerry, had not only entered the house before me but had also entered my wife, and more than once by the look of the pair of them and I was immediately struck with by the thought that their actions had rendered me the first cuckold of Spring.

Uncanny Tales – (046) The April Showers

 

The lightning struck, intensely bright, followed in almost the same instance by the thunderclap directly overhead, so loud that it shook the car and then the rain began and fell heavily in large drops beating a frantic tune on the car roof, then almost as quickly as the dark skies arrived they were gone and the sun was out again, although it was a few moments before the April shower stopped completely and a rainbow appeared in the sky.

We were parked by the village green, which was patterned with strips of freshly cut grass and when we got out of the car the mixture of sun, rain and cut grass produced a smell that was quite intoxicating.

We locked the car and headed down the lane and as if the switch on a great sound system had been flicked on, the bird life in the trees bordering the green exploded into a cacophony of sound as they emerged from their shelters to go about their spring business.

We turned off the lane into the woods where nature and man had both left their mark.

The areas that had once been coppiced or pollarded now went their own way and the woods were full of life.

On the borders of the woods the old cut and lay hedge and the ancient hedgerows along the lanes teamed with a great abundance of life of all kinds.

A sobering reflection on this idyllic scene is that all the visible life was either predator or prey but that did not detract from its beauty in fact it enhanced it if anything.

However the skies darkened again and the rain started to fall and we had to make a dash for the car, but by the time we reached the car we were soaked to the skin and we quickly scrabbled into the car as if fearful we would get even wetter if indeed that were even possible.

Just as I closed the door the lightning struck again and then the thunder shook the car violently once more.

What a wonderful and remarkable time spring is wherever you are but in the British Isles the unpredictability transforms, almost in a heartbeat, from tranquility to chaos and back again, and you know I don’t think I would want to live anywhere else.

 

ON THE PLANTATION

 

On the plantation

Nothing can be finer

Than a bevy of Quail

In South Carolina